Eine Kleine Do-Re-Mi (Salzburg Part I)

The best part of my Spring Break by far was Salzburg, Austria; the birthplace of Mozart and the location of The Sound of Music. We didn’t know exactly what to expect upon coming here and were beyond pleasantly surprised. We were very happy to leave Vienna and catch a train across Austria. Luckily, we were able to get a really cheap train for only 23 Euros and it was the nicest train I’ve ever been on. There were couch-like seats that we could pretty much lay down on for the 3 hour ride. The views from the Austrian countryside only added to how great the ride was. 

Day 1

When we first got to Salzburg I was completely taken back by the mountains that are visible in the distance in nearly every direction. To see the town we did our own walking tour with a good old-fashioned map. We went to a bakery, bought some candy, and continued to be amazed by the picturesque views. Our hostel was a nice mix between the home-like hostel we stayed at in Prague and the hotel-like hostel we stayed at in Vienna. To our great pleasure, the hostel showed The Sound of Music movie every night in the living room area. Of course, we went and watched it. I forgot how many great songs that movie had in it. For dinner we ate at a super-trendy (almost too trendy) sushi place. The food was good but we felt slightly too un-cool to be eating there.

Day 2

The next day we embarked on our Sound of Music tour, unsure of how it would be. On our way there we sat with a Canadian couple who truly were the epitome of an “opposites attract” couple. That really set the tone for the entire tour. Overall, the tour was awesome! We saw the recreated gazebo from the “I am 16 Going on 17” part of the film. Unfortunately we couldn’t go inside because a 90-year-old woman once fell in it and broke her hip while trying to recreate the scene were Liesel jumps from bench to bench singing. Poor lady, she tried. Instead, we worked with what we had and made a video of me running around the outside of the gazebo while Val and Katie sand the “I am 20 Going On 21” version of the song:

During the tour we also saw other scenes from the movie, such as one of the houses used as the Von Trapp house, the convent, the church, the cemetery, and the garden. Here are some pictures:

Our hostel

Mirabell Gardens 

The Mirabell Garden scene from the movie

The Von Trapp House

Gazebo

Gazebo scene 

 

 

The church where Maria got married

Inside the church

Hot chocolate!

Apple strudel

 The best part of this tour was that Peter, our lovely tour guide, put on The Sound of Music soundtrack while we drove around in our minivan bus. During the break on our tour we were brought to St. Gilgens and Mondsee; two beautiful areas that are honeymoon worthy. For me, breathtaking is an understatement. If I hadn’t gone to this place myself I wouldn’t believe it was real. We sat outside at a quaint café next to the church used in the Sound of Music movie and had some hot chocolate and apple strudel.

When we got back to our hostel we were surpised to find that we had our first roommate while traveling abroad: a young Asian boy named Ping. He barely spoke English but was very sweet.

That night we went to an Irish pub (in Austria, I know, we completely failed to embrace the Austrian culture) called Shamrock. Here, we got beer called Edelweiss and watched a live band perform. It was funny to watch the band read the English words off of a piece of paper and mess a few of them up occasionally.

Buda Baby

As a much needed leave from Vienna, a few of us went to Budapest for a day. It was truly beautiful in so many ways and had some of the nicest views I’ve seen so far. Since we had such a short time there we made sure we booked a tour that showed us the most important things Budapest had to offer. However, finding the pick up point for the tour was quite an ordeal. Long story short, we got on the wrong tour bus and our actual tour company sent a VIP car to pick us up from where we were and bring us to the right place. Here’s a little video to show a snippet of that interesting ride.

On the tour we learned that Budapest is separated by the River Danube into two parts: Buda and Pest. Makes sense. While traveling through the different areas we saw Parliament, beautiful views from  Fisherman’s Bastion, and even climbed the Millenary Monument. The weather there was beautiful, also adding to how much we enjoyed the experience. Still, the lack of the English language there was confusing. It's pretty hard to travel around places where station names are 18 letter words separated by those little smiled face u's, such a Kettenbrückengasse on the Austrian Metro.

Biggest french fry ever?

 

Flea market!

VIP car ride

  

Millenary Monument

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Success!

Fisherman's Bastion

 

 

 

Vienna Waits for You

Next in my Spring Break journey was Vienna. Unfortunately the weather was pretty miserable while we were there, which tainted the overall experience. However, there were  a few positive aspects of this part of our trip. First, our cheap bus ride there turned out to be really nice. There were little baby TV's in the back of each seat and the chairs reclined. On the ride there I had a slightly eye-opening experience when I overheard a Spanish woman and an Italian man talking about the English language and how important it was to learn. It really put things in perspective for me and made me very grateful to be born in America and have this popular language under my belt. Even so, I do think it's important that English speaking individuals take the time to experience and learn some other languages as well.

Upon leaving Prague we had pretty much mastered the Czech transportation system, but once we got to Vienna we were in Austria and had to figure everything out again. Needless to say, we had some difficulties and ended up riding the elevator up and down five times when we first got to the train station. But, as with everything else, we figured it out.

When we got to Vienna we checked into our hostel, which was drastically different from the other ones we previously stayed at. This one was huge and felt much more like a hotel than a hostel. I guess I should have been pleased by this but I couldn't help but miss the feel of a cozy home-like hostel. I definitely can't complain about the shower though; it felt like a wonderfully warming waterfall (alliteration).

After we checked in we walked around some of the markets, which were rather interesting. I've never seen chocolate for sale next to a slab of meat before, but hey, cultural differences I guess. (Don't worry, I didn't buy any of that food). For dinner we went to an Italian restaurant... in Austria, and had some good food.

 

 

The next day was unfortunately just as rainy as the first. But, since we're such positive go-getters we made a solid effort to make the best of it. In the morning we went on a free walking tour from our hostel around Vienna. We saw some historic sights, a palace, and the hotel where the John and Yoko bed interviews took place. We kept feeling like we were missing something though that made people so eager to go to Vienna. (Unfortunately we never really found what that thing was). What we did know about Vienna is that it was known for its history of classical music so we got tickets to see a classical music show. The show itself was pretty cheesy but the music was great. Here are some pictures to sum it up:

 

For dinner we went to a pretty gourmet McDonald's where I ordered shrimp... classy. Overall for Vienna: Satisfactory.

Oops (Prahahahaha)

Well, it would appear that I haven't posted anything on here in an entire month. To say 'time flies' would be an understatement at this point. I've written notes from the past few weeks; Spring Break, London, my internship. I'll start today by posting some stuff from the beginning of my Spring Break - Prague!

So I did indeed make it home after traveling around Europe for 9 days, successfully living out of my backpack. We encountered some language barriers, difficulties with currency exchange, and some awkward hostel experiences. But overall, this was one of the greatest experiences of my life thus far. I saw so many beautiful things that it'll be hard for me to try to explain them in the amount of detail they deserve. Luckily, I took plenty of pictures throughout the week and took notes so I would remember what things I wanted to write about on my blog. And so we begin...

My adventure started very early last Saturday morning in Prague (Praha) Czech Republic. All 12 of us left our flat around 3:30 in the morning to catch our plane in Gatwick Airport at 6:30. All of that went pretty smoothly, considering we were a huge group of girls. Once we got to Prague, things got a little more difficult. We had to take a bus from the airport to the area where our hostel was located. To our surprise, nothing was in English and most of the people at the airport spoke little English. As naive American girls who study in London, we didn't even consider this possibility. (In hindsight, we realized that nearly everyone in Prague speaks English, they just often chose not to). After some time of trying to decipher street names and bus stops we finally made it to our hostel, which was pretty hidden within another building.

Of course, all of this made us tired so naturally we had to go eat. We found an Italian restaurant that served brick oven pizzas and figured it would be safe enough. The food was great, but trying to pay for it was a whole other situation. In the Czech Republic their currency is crowns, although they do often accept euros. However, converting from pounds to euros to crowns was extremely difficult, especially since 1 euro = 24 crowns. So basically, the price of something would be 120 crowns but that would only mean 5 euros.

Other than that, Prague was amazing. It reminded me of Disney World with its quiet, small cobblestone streets. There was even a castle that looked like an evil fortress straight out of a fairytale. We walked around a lot, did a night time ghost tour, saw the John Lennon wall, did a pub crawl, and went on a free boat tour. Also, we walked across the Charles Bridge and made a wish while touching one of the statues that is supposed to bring good luck, as well as touch the statue that is supposed to guarantee that you'll come back to Prague. We also saw the infant of Prague and I was able to dip my medal in some holy water there. Here are some pictures:

 

Brick oven for our pizza

 

 

 

The electric wires for the transportation system

 

John Lennon Wall

 

 

 

Strawberry juice

Notice the guard in the background

Cathedral

Baby hail

 

Some veggies, rice, and baby shrimps

Finally, to briefly mention our hostel... in one word I would call it 'awkward.' The people working there were very nice and the layout was very cute and cozy, but some aspects were just very odd. For instance, we all had to share one bathroom, which had a toilet and two showers in it, only the toilet was not separated from the showers and if two people shower at once they're only separated by a much-too-small dividing wall. Very awkward. The staff there, with their long dreadlocks and constant smiles, were very nice.

Hostel bedroom

Awkward shower

Prague: COMPLETE.